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Paterson, New Jersey has 5 accredited schools offering homeland security programs, with tuition ranging from $38,004 to $50,305 per year for indexed programs. Paterson has a population of about 157,660. Median household income is $53,766 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 12.5% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area, the top-earning homeland security-related role is Detective and Criminal Investigator at a median $106,440 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer homeland security programs near Paterson, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Paterson city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Paterson. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and CollegesIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all New Jersey schools on the New Jersey homeland security page.
Paterson is part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area (BLS area code 35620). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to New Jersey statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency Management Director | $100,980 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $89,680 |
| Detective and Criminal Investigator | $106,440 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $94,529 |
| Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer | $105,540 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $93,730 |
| Transportation Security Screener | $72,340 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $64,245 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 157,660 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $53,766 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 12.5% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 112.6 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering homeland security programs near Paterson. The closest is Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ (0.4 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is New Jersey City University (14.8 miles). 5 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying homeland security-related roles near Paterson are: Detective and Criminal Investigator ($106,440), Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer ($105,540), Emergency Management Director ($100,980). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with New Jersey statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Elmwood Park, NJ is 2.3 miles from Paterson and has its own set of local homeland security programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Paterson’s median household income of $53,766 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Paterson while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and New Jersey public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Paterson:
Data verified: July 30, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Online Homeland Security Programs in New Jersey (2026)
